Dear Aila,

It's September 1st, 2017, you're exactly 20 weeks and 1 day old and we're currently 30,000 ft above ground on a transatlantic flight to our new home in Istanbul, Turkey. In your short 20 week life thus far, you've been all over the map. I figured it was only right you baked this way to prepare you for the nomadic lifestyle you've got ahead of ya. You were conceived 5 months ago, in the beautiful town of Santiago de Compostela, Spain (I'll spare you the details of that one). From there you spent a perfect month in Lithuania, where the news of your conception made your grandparents and great-grandparents the happiest people on Earth. You even did a weekend trip to London to tell your uncle  Pat, in person, that he had a new big role to fill. Your next 3 months were soaked up in Sunny South Florida where you already began to be spoiled by your "MoMo" and tons of other loving friends and family members.  Now, in the blink of an eye, we're moving on to our next adventure.

Eleven and a half hours on this Turkish Airlines flight separate us from your dad who's spent the past two weeks at training camp in Slovenia and is now waiting for us in our new apartment in Istanbul. I had to forgo my usual pre-flight ritual of 2 glasses of Pinot Noir and a Tylenol PM, I'll try not to hold this against you. Your Puppy Brother is sitting comfortably, alternating laps between mine and the Ukranian Mobster's to my left. I'm finally starting to calm down after getting into a hysterical fight with the man I paid $20 to to carry my luggage for me (who decided he'd rather dump my three suitcases when I wasn't looking and leave me on my own to carry them). Hormones raging, I spent the entirety of the security line bawling like a lunatic while strangers looked on in fear. Again, I won't hold this against you. (By the way- your moms a total G usually, these pregnancy hormones just have me messed up, I don't want you to get the wrong first impression here).

We're headed into our sixth season (and 6th country) of living overseas, where your daddy pays the bills by playing professional basketball. It'll be a pretty cool story for you to tell the kids at school some day. Crazy to think this will be my last flight solo, I've really gotten the hang of this whole packing up my life every summer and starting somewhere new thing, but I'm excited for you to be my road dog.

Let's back up a second though, how did I get here? Seems like just yesterday we were finishing up our season in Spain, clueless to the idea that we were about to become a family of 3 (sorry Tucker, I mean 4).

Another season ended, (a great one at that), and we were on a late night flight to Lithuania to start our Summer.  We arrived to our flat in Vilnius late Thursday evening to a dining room of flowers and a fridge full of our favorite Lithuanian beer, courtesy of your Auntie Kamile. Little did I know it would be the last drink I'd have for quite some time.

I woke up the next day and opened up my iPhone's calendar. 4 days late. Hmm.. well my body could just be confused from all the traveling. Or, maybe she could've been right...

After lunch with Kamile, I insisted your dad take me to a drugstore to buy a pregnancy test. For some odd reason, in Lithuania, it's common to find drugstores in the mall. We drove to the biggest mall in the city and I ran to the pregnancy test aisle. To my surprise there was a man at the end of the embarrassing-shit-you-never-want-to-be-seen-buying-aisle with a massive news camera filming the unlucky customers shopping up and down it. I have no idea what he was doing there but figured the only day of my life thus far that I needed to purchase a pregnancy test was the perfect day for a local news station to film a piece on shopping for pregnancy tests. Thank God. Now I wouldn't say we're celebrities in Lithuania, but I think we're well known enough that my face on the local news station comparing Clear Blue Tests would cause a little bit of an uproar. Also, not exactly how I wanted your grandparents to find out about you,  and besides, I didn't even know what the results would be yet!

Your dad was apparently 100x more embarrassed than me and bolted to the opposite side of the store as soon as he laid eyes on the camera man. I've never seen him so passionate about hair gel and toothpicks, but boy did he spend some serious time stalling comparing them! After threatening your father's life, he finally boxed out the camera man for me so that I could pick a pregnancy test and get the hell out of there.

We arrived back to our apartment and I immediately took the test and waited the longest, most painful 3-5 minutes of my life. A faint double line, what does that mean?! I'd never taken a pregnancy test before and took this as a sign that I just needed to take another. So I did. Same results. "It says right here if you see any sort of second line, it mean's your pregnant", your dad told me. Again, I wasn't buying it. I then made him take me to a clinic to get my blood work done. If it wasn't for my subpar Lithuanian skills, I easily would've asked the nurse doing my blood work "So you've done enough of these, what's your gut telling you here. Am I pregnant or not?" I think your Dad was grateful I wasn't fully able to communicate with her. They told us they'd email us the results in a few hours. How could I possibly wait that long?!

Come to find out, pregnancy is the weirdest thing ever. It's like as soon as you even smell that you may be pregnant, you immediately start feeling some symptoms. In true pregnant fashion, I fell asleep on the couch, making your dad promise to wake me up when the results came in. I woke up an hour later, looked at him next to me with a huge grin on his face and I already knew what the answer was.  I cried, we hugged, and then I went into complete and utter shock, walking around like a robot for the next week or so.

Luckily we had dinner plans with your Auntie Kamile and Uncle Paulius so I didn't have to keep the secret for too long. We had a beautiful dinner outside and talked all about you and how excited we were. After Dinner, the man sitting at the table next to us walked over and told your Daddy he was a huge fan of his- he recited all of his stats from the previous season and even commented on his recent hairstyle change. I was over the moon excited that this random super-fan who happened to be sitting next to us heard of my pregnancy via eavesdrop before my own family and friends did. Go figure.

Another weird thing about pregnancy is that the second you find out you're pregnant, everyone loves to take guesses on what the gender will be. Growing up with two older brothers, I always imagined having a boy first, but as soon as I found out I was pregnant, I couldn't have cared less what you were, I was just so excited you were on your way!

Now that I know you're a girl, it's pretty clear once I look back at the signs.  I just read a quote in Vogue by Serena Williams, where she said "I have a strong suspicion that it's a girl....Two weeks after we found out, I played in the Australian Open. I told Alexis it has to be a girl because there I was playing in 100-degree weather, and that baby never gave me any trouble. Ride or die. Women are tough that way". She's right and I have to credit my extremely easy pregnancy (thus far) to the fact that you're a badass female, a true ride or die. Your timing is impeccable, by the way, and I can't help but think you planned your arrival to coincide with the pregnancy of some of my favorite females: five of my best friends: Madison, Stevi, Indre, Brittney and Ashley and my best friends who don't know it yet: Beyonce, Ciara, and Serena (okay they've all had their babies by now but at least we overlapped for a little bit there!)

If we're being honest, there's a tiny detail I've left out. The truth is, I shouldn't have been too shocked about my pregnancy, as someone actually told me I was pregnant with you months ago. Let me explain. So your "MoMo" scheduled me an appointment to meet with an Angel Card Reader. I know what your'e thinking here and again, don't get the wrong impression of me! I'm not into magic, Tarot Cards or Astrology. In fact, I never even read my horoscope because I don't think it ever accurately describes me. However, this women came highly recommended. She uses "Angel Cards", oracle cards with various words on them,  to help guide you in your life choices. You can mentally ask her specific questions you want the answers to, or tell her you just want an open reading. She is also somewhat of a Medium and can attempt to connect with anyone you love who has passed on. Why not, I thought. I'd give it a go.

Anyways, I was home for a friend's wedding at the end of April and MoMo scheduled me an appointment with the Angel Card Reader. I stepped into her home and she stopped me at her door. "I'm sorry but I can't even begin this reading until I let you know there is a baby, your angels are sending you a baby and it's here".  Knowing that your dad and I had just made the decision to start a family a few months prior, and that we actually started trying only a week ago, I took this as good news that she saw a baby sometime in our near future. She even told me that she saw a little girl and that the angels were sending her visuals of you with your dad, and that the two of you would have an amazing father-daughter bond right from the start. (I have to admit I'm a little jealous but I can't blame you, he's pretty awesome).  This woman knew nothing about me, had no idea I was married or even what point in my life I was at, but she knew you were here. I took her news with a grain of salt. There was no way we could've gotten pregnant on our first try but I found comfort in knowing you were somewhere in the future. Come to find out, you couldn't have been but a week old at this point and the Angel Card Reader's voice stayed in the back of my head on that long Lithuanian Day when I finally found out you were here.

In addition to her, multiple people had contacted me in the beginning of my pregnancy telling me they had dreams I was pregnant. In fact, people I barely knew (my best friend's co-workers, actually), had the same dreams! What can I say girlfriend, you aren't even here yet and you're already making quite the impression.

I'm halfway to meeting you and I couldn't be more excited. There are so many things I worry about. Will I be a good parent? How will I deal with X, Y or Z? At the end of the day, I just hope you know your worth: that you're a strong, powerful, female who can do absolutely anything in the world she wants to do. Here's to the next 20 weeks together, exploring a new country, in one of the biggest cities on Earth, and being my ride or die, no matter where we end up! I love you.